Rusty People-Sketching Chops at Whole Foods

9/23/13 Diamine Chocolate Brown ink, Sailor pen

After finishing a few errands this morning, it was still raining hard. I considered stopping by at Zoka Coffee for some sketching, but it was so sloppy-wet outside that I didn’t feel like getting out of the car. . . and then I remembered: Whole Foods on Roosevelt has an underground parking garage as well as a spacious café area. Score!

I can’t really complain about the rain – I had a great summer with plenty of outdoor sketching – but that means I haven’t spent much concentrated time sketching people since last spring. Sure, I sketched quite a few vendors and buskers at farmers markets, but it’s at coffee shops that people busy on their laptops might as well be paid models – they hardly move at all. That’s how I work on my people-sketching chops. 

I had settled in at a well-positioned table with coffee and sketchbook, and that’s when I noticed that people come and go much more quickly at Whole Foods. The reason? No wi-fi. My rusty people-sketching chops definitely got a workout trying to keep up with hungry patrons scarfing down quick meals.

9/23/13 Diamine Chocolate Brown and Private Reserve  Ebony Brown inks, 100 lb. paper

9/23/13 Chocolate Brown and Ebony Brown inks, 100 lb. paper